Minnesota Wild: Could the Wild Trade for Nikita Kucherov?
As the Minnesota Wild continue to look for a possible upgrade in the trade market many scenarios start to materialize. One such scenario is if the Wild might actually be able to trade for 30 goal scorer and current RFA Nikita Kucherov.
When the Minnesota Wild signed Eric Staal and Chris Stewart, they gave their forward line-up a huge shot in the arm. By adding two excellent players like Staal and Stewart to the already talented group of the Wild it’s easy to see how all four forward lines could quickly fill up with talent. Still there exists rumors that the Wild might still be looking for more forward help in the trade market.
So many names have been speculated for a multitude of reasons. The Wild may have been quiet on the stage at the draft in Buffalo last month, but behind the stage they were very busy. GM Chuck Fletcher was busy meeting with agents, players, and most of all other GMs. There’s been a lot of conversations/meetings that Fletcher had with different teams have been reported on, but by and large it can be said that he made it around to every team and discussed any multitude of options that might not have been reported on.
One GM he should have been hitting up would be Steve Yzerman of the Tampa Bay Lightning. Stevie Y’s club is heading into very hard offseason with lots of decisions to be made on free-agent players. Granted the hardest decision, Steven Stamkos was taken care of right away on the 1st day of fee-agency. Still the Lightning have a lot of talented RFAs that will require some significant attention.
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One of those players is Nikita Kucherov who is coming off his first 30 goal season in his three NHL seasons. He’s an important part of the Lightning’s lineup and might seem non-expendable, but as the team looks to gauge his asking price against the $12.9 million in cap space they have remaining he might just be someone they will look to move for the right price.
What’s more there might be some issues with re-signing Kucherov. As of seven days ago Yzerman was confident the Lightning could sign him, but still nothing has materialized yet. Kucherov’s price has been speculated to by the Tampa Bay Times as be somewhere in the neighborhood of the 6-year $36 million deal that Filip Forsberg got from Nashville. With other pieces needing to be signed as well Yzerman might be looking to get him signed for the right price, which might not be the right price for Kucherov.
The Lightning’s biggest need will defense, and as all the Wild faithful know the team has a few players could fill that need. Right now the Lightning have four solid defenders, but could and should be in the market for an upgrade to help fill out their top six defenders.
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Except for Victor Hedman, the weakness of the Lighting’s defense is scoring. Hedman is the only Tampa defender that notched 10 goals or more last season. Mathew Dumba and Jared Spurgeon both scored over 10 goals and could be exactly what the Lightning need to increase their blueline scoring. Additionally, the Lightning were abysmal on the power play finishing 29 out of 31 NHL clubs and much of that can be attributed to the lack of blueline offense.
Salary wise the Wild can pull this deal off if they move the right player. Right now the Wild have $5.3 million in cap space, and as said before it looks like $6 million annually will be the price point for Kucherov so the Wild are very close already. If the Wild were to move Spurgeon, Scandella, or Brodin they all offer $4-5 million in cap space which would insure the Wild still have some cap space left over after a deal is completed while covering the projected $6 million annually Kucherov would demand.
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Granted a trade for Kucherov will be very difficult to pull off and could not be something that comes to fruition. But as contract talks draw out and the threat of offer sheets increases, the Lightning might not have any choice but to move him. The Wild would be smart to make sure that they have the price point for Kucherov and be ready to acquire him if they are willing to pay that price. After all an upgrade of a young 30 goal scorer is worth quite a lot, but it could be the exact thing the Wild need to nail down their long sought after championship.